Let me start by admitting that I’m a horrible meal planner. It’s not for lack of trying. Lists have been made in the past, only to be lost or forgotten on the counter. After doing that one too many times, I took it as a sign that perhaps I was better suited to winging it. Truth be told, I like the spontaneity of “planning” meals while I’m shopping too. It offers more inspiration and frees me from the rigidity of a set menu.

Thanksgiving, though, is a different story. There are certain favorites I know I want to make every year, so when November rolls around I feel more inclined to be prepared. Two essentials I’ve needed every year are homemade stock for making gravy and pie crusts for dessert. Luckily, they’re both components you can get a jump on prepping well in advance before the holiday.

This weekend on Food Network, watch all-new episodes that will inspire and entertain. Start Saturday morning off with some Tex-Mex favorites for the family from Ree. Then, Giada’s inspired by casinos when creating her party spread. In the evening, watch a special Miss America-themed episode of Cupcake Wars.

On Sunday morning, Rachael shows you how to make a week’s worth of recipes. Afterward, Guy reworks breakfast staples as lunch and dinner options. Then on Southern at Heart, Damaris shows a guest in need of culinary guidance how to create a down-home breakfast.

In the evening, watch Guy’s Grocery Games for a surprising twist in the final round. At 9pm/8c, tune in for the series premiere of Restaurant Express in which nine aspiring restaurateurs fight for the chance to win their own restaurant concept. They’ll be traveling by bus, facing challenges created by Robert Irvine, who will help them shape their own restaurant. And finally, watch a new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen, where the competitors in the last round must make s’mores, which may require a campfire for one unlucky chef.

Caught between her bickering fiancé, Neil Vaswani, and her mother, Terry Kipriadis, Vicky Giannakos explained: “My mother. She’s stubborn like a bull. Neil is also stubborn like a bull.” Terry opened Gyros & Goodies in Washington Township, N.J., three years ago, and Neil supported the venture as a substantial partner. But now that the Greek-focused restaurant is facing a mountain of financial struggles, Neil’s convinced the eatery should relaunch with a Mexican concept, while Terry is committed to Mediterranean fare. “The restaurant can’t continue like this, and as a family, we can’t continue like this,” Vicky admitted, just in time for Rocco DiSpirito and a Restaurant Divided transformation to decide the fate of her family’s business once and for all.

After sampling made-over menu items and overhauling the interior of the restaurant, Rocco welcomed everyday diners and esteemed restaurateurs alike for dinner at two concepts — the blue-and-white-clad Gyros & Goodies, run by Terry, and The Township Cantina, a bright spot staffed by Neil — in the same space. The future of Terry’s business, however, was ultimately in Rocco’s hands, as he number crunched profitability estimates and spoke with customers before eventually deeming Terry’s Gyros & Goodies more likely to succeed than Neil’s Mexican endeavor.

Making your own caramel might seem daunting, but it is actually remarkably easy — you just need sugar and patience. And when the reward is gorgeous tart-sweet, just-chewy-enough caramel apples, it’s worth being patient.

Whether you’re hosting a full-fledged Halloween bash or whipping up a low-key celebration tonight, throw a party that’s just as much about the good food as the costumes. Let’s face it: in between nibbles of bite-size candy bars and fistfuls of candy corn, your guests — and kids — could use some real food, too. Go beyond the annual sugar binge and make homemade appetizers and treats with fall’s finest seasonal produce. These dishes will impress even the most discerning ghosts, vampires and witches.

As a seasonal rendition of the Mexican mainstay, Butternut Squash Tamales are wrapped up mummy-style in traditional cornhusks. Stuff these with a squash-based dough and a filling of raisins, olives and chipotle chiles, and peel them open in between trick-or-treaters.

In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan posits that some plants beguile us into domesticating them. Apples, tulips, potatoes — they appeal, Michael claims, to fundamental human needs, and so we propagated them, ensuring their survival. They are ubiquitous now not by chance, but by design, both ours and theirs.

Quince, it seems, missed this evolutionary mandate. In fact, quince seems to have taken the opposite tack, stubbornly refusing to play nicely with modern cooks. Always pressed for time, if we cook at all, we’re unlikely to choose a fruit that cannot be eaten raw — it tastes like a mealy, sour apple. They can be difficult to peel, harder to cut and noncommittal about cooking times — 20 minutes one day, it seems, an hour another (yet mine, though slightly underripe, cooked pretty quickly).

But we genuinely think quince will indeed make you happy once you give it a try. We made our recipes as easy as possible. (Honestly, look at other recipes online. Once you tackle finding and prepping the quince, it demands very little in the way of special ingredients or fancy technique — stewing, baking, roasting, some sugar, some alcohol, maybe some spices.)

Facing nearly $230,000 of debt, 33-year-old Ducky’s Family Restaurant in Kokomo, Ind., desperately needed Robert Irvine‘s help if the business was to have any chance at future success. Not long after Robert arrived, he realized that poor-quality canned food was among the largest issues plaguing Ducky’s, as was its drab interior decor akin, which Robert’s designer, Taniya Nayak, deemed “a cafeteria nightmare.” Together with Taniya and the rest of his Restaurant: Impossibleteam, Robert re-launched Ducky’s after two days of work on a $10,000 budget, and he helped owner Bill Duncan and Bill’s family learn essential skills for managing their family-run eatery. FN Dish caught up with Bill to find out how his business is doing a few months since the show filmed.

The Chopped Dinner Challenge is a new series of recipes showing you how easy it is to cook like a winning Chopped competitor. Every week, FN Dish will showcase a recipe created by Food Network Kitchens that uses at least one of the Chopped basket ingredients, plus basic grocery goods and simple staples. Consider it your very own Chopped challenge. Just take this frequent tip from the judges: Don’t forget to season!

On this week’s Chopped: Competition Italiano episode, the competitors found limoncello, pasta dough, soppressata and newborn baby fish in their appetizer baskets. Except for that last ingredient, the items sound pretty standard for an Italian kitchen. During the challenge, some of the competitors got into a bit of a sticky situation with the pasta dough, which turned out to be the most difficult to transform. But for this Chopped Dinner Challenge, the featured item is the soppressata, a very flavorful Italian salami that’s much easier to use than pasta dough. It’s great eaten on its own but even better when cooked in a dish like this: Pan-Seared Halibut with Soppressata and Fennel. The recipe is perfect for either an elegant dinner party or a casual family dinner.